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Tennis Comeback Just Got Sweeter

By

Jason Gay

Updated May 23, 2012 7:07 p.m. ET

Steve Baker was in his Nashville law office late Wednesday afternoon, watching a grainy computer feed of a small pro-tennis match in Nice, France, when the screen froze with the score tied 9-9 in the tiebreaker of the second set. This doesn't seem like a grave international crisis, but one of the players frozen on the red clay court was Steve's 27-year-old son, Brian, who was on the verge of winning one of the biggest matches of his life, against France's Gael Monfils, the 13th-ranked player in the world.

Jason Gay

Steve Baker went scrambling for his iPad, desperate to conjure up the feed. Just then, the match came alive on the screen of a co-worker's computer. The father was able to see his son finish off Monfils in the tiebreaker, taking a straight-set victory, 6-3, 7-6 (9) and pushing into the quarterfinals of the Open de Nice Cote d'Azur.

"There was a little bit of screaming on this side of the office," Steve Baker said.

It was the latest chapter in an amazing sports comeback story. I wrote about Brian Baker a couple of days ago, but to give a little context about Wednesday's victory: Brian Baker has beaten Gael Monfils before. In, uh, 2003. That's when the teenage Baker was one of the world's top junior players, in the early stages of what many thought could be a celebrated pro career.

But instead, Baker's run was ravaged by injuries—five surgeries total, including Tommy John on his elbow and three separate hip procedures. He stopped playing competitive tennis and enrolled in college at 23, abandoning the top level of the sport for six years before recently attempting a comeback. A pain-free Baker played well enough in some U.S. tournaments to recently earn a wild-card slot to the upcoming 2012 French Open.

He was in Nice as a tuneup for Roland Garros, but it's become more than a tuneup. Baker won three qualifying matches to reach the main event, and beat No. 84-ranked Sergiy Stakhovsky to get to Monfils. He was convincing and often dominant against the rangy 25-year-old Frenchman, roaring to a 5-1 lead in taking the first set, feasting on Monfils's second serve, and fending off multiple set points before winning the tiebreak.

At first glance, it's an astonishing upset, against a home-country favorite no less, but Baker looked like he'd been there before. He had been there before—just a really long time ago. "Most of these guys coming up, they're in awe," said Jim Madrigal, tennis coach at Nashville's Belmont University, where Baker went to school and served as an assistant coach. "He's not in awe."

Baker's appearance in the Nice quarters is his deepest run ever in ATP Tour event. On Thursday he faces No. 55-ranked Mikhail Kukushkin.

"I'm pretty excited," Brian Baker said to me on the phone, not long after the match was over. "It's moments like this you come back for."

Understand what this means. One of the world's best tennis players lost Wednesday to a guy who just weeks ago was driving himself eight hours to play in low-profile U.S. tournaments.

An almost forgotten face, scruffy with stubble, ranked No. 216 in the world, improbably climbing higher.

"A real tennis player," said Steve Baker. "It's not a fluke."

It was getting close to midnight in France. Brian Baker's cellphone was filling with happy messages from the U.S., but he was on his way to the trainer to get a massage. Six years is a long time to wait. But there was tennis to play tomorrow.

Tennis Comeback Just Got Sweeter

Steve Baker was in his Nashville law office late Wednesday afternoon, watching a grainy computer feed of a small pro-tennis match in Nice, France, when the screen froze with the score tied 9-9 in the tiebreaker of the second set.